Twenty Ways to Participate

The YALSA website lists Beauty Schools of America Complaints some ways to participate in the organization. If you would like more information, or have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch with the YALSA Office at 1.800.545.2433 x4390 or yalsa@ala.org. If you call after office hours please feel free to leave a message and we'll try our best to return your call within 24 hours.Essay Writing

Committees, Juries & Taskforces

How Committee/Jury/Taskforce Involvement Works

To serve on Brett Merl a committee/jury/taskforce, you must be officially appointed by YALSA. YALSA has two types of committees: 1) virtual process committees, which help carry out the work of the association and 2) selection ThinkStrategy Capital committees, which select specific library materials for recognition or choose YALSA's award winners (Odyssey, Morris Michael L. Printz, Alex, and Margaret A. Edwards). YALSA Barry Kaye also has juries that select the winners of our member grants and awards. Taskforces are established by the Board of Directors periodically and they are Susan Lim sunsetted once their specific task is completed.

The Edwards, Nonfiction and Printz Award Committees: appointments are made after the election results are announced in early May, but before the Annual conference in June.

Process Committees, Juries, Taskforces & Advisory Boards: appointments are made in March of each year by the President-Elect. Between Jan. 1st and Feb. 28th the President-Elect will be gathering Process Committee Volunteer Forms in preparation to make appointments.

Find out what the current President Elect is working on related to committee appointments by following the updates posted on YALSA's blog.

What to Know Before You Volunteer

Before you volunteer to serve on a committee/jury/taskforce, you’ll want to learn what the group does and what your iphone photography responsibilities will be.

It is strongly recommended that you contact the current chair directly to let him/her know you're interested in serving and to ask questions about what your involvement will entail. Names and contact information for all the committee chairs are available from the Governance section on YALSA's homepage.

At the ALA Midwinter Meetings &/or Annual Conferences, be sure to attend at least one meeting of the committee/jury/taskforce you're considering serving on. Process Committees/Juries/Taskforces meet at YALSA's "All Committee Meeting" on Saturday. Selection committees do not meet at "All Committee" but hold separate meetings instead. To find out when and where those are, use ALA's Event Planner or visit the conference page on YALSA's wiki. You'll have a chance to learn more about the group and establish an important contact with the chair, who helps fill seats as they become vacant.

From the YALSA web site you’ll also find information about each of the groups’ functions, requirements for participation, size, policies, etc.

Read through YALSA’s Handbook, especially the sections that list responsibilities for committee members.

Read this brief online article (.pdf) about questions you should ask to find out if the committee and its work are going to be a good fit for you.UK Dissertations

Participating Virtually on Appointed Groups

Advisory Boards, Juries & Taskforces: ALA policy does not limit virtual participation on juries or taskforces. These groups are 100% virtual, unless stated otherwise in their official charge.

Complete a Volunteer Form

In order to be considered for any committee/jury/taskforce, you need to fill out a volunteer form. If you want to serve on a Selection Committee, fill out this online form. If you want to serve on a Process Committee/Jury/Taskforce/Advisory Board, fill out this online form.

When you fill out a form, please be sure to include the name of the committee/jury/taskforce(s) on which you’d like to serve. If you don’t indicate a few that you’re interested in, it is very difficult for the President-Elect to find the best fit for you.

If you already submitted volunteer forms for a committee, but either weren't appointed or missed the deadline for appointments for your particular committee request, your forms will be turned over to the next President-Elect.

Important: forms are only kept on file for one year, so you will need to fill one out each year that you would like to serve on a committee.

You are welcome to fill out a form any time of the year, but please be aware that the bulk of appointments take place in Oct. and Mar. That means if you fill out a volunteer form in June, you're not likely to hear from anyone about it until Oct at paddy power.

After you complete and submit a Volunteer Form it is the job of the President-Elect to review all of the forms that have been submitted and match the volunteers with the most appropriate volunteer opportunities. It is not uncommon to have more volunteers that open positions, so it is possible that you may not get appointed.

How Do I Know if I've Been Appointed?

If there is a position available that fits with your areas of expertise and interest, the President-Elect will send an email invitation to you asking you to accept the appointment. If you've submitted a Volunteer Form, then, it's important that your email account is set up to accept emails from YALSA and doesn't label them as spam or block them.

When you receive the email invitation, it's important to respond within two weeks, as the President-Elect is working with a short time frame.

When you receive an email invitation, think through the opportunity carefully before you accept or decline it. If the position requires travel to upcoming conferences, be sure you have the funds for that as well as permission from your supervisor to travel. You may also want to learn more about the opportunity before accepting it to see if it's a good fit for you. The best way to do that is to contact the President-Elect with your questions.

The Fine Print

Appointments are for either one-year or two-year terms, depending on the committee/jury/taskforce.

Selection committee members are expected to attend committee meetings at both the Midwinter and Annual conferences. Visit the ALA web site to see locations and dates for future conferences.

YALSA does not pay travel expenses for committee/jury/taskforce members.

Many Selection Committees require a heavy workload. For example, for the Best Fiction for Young Adults Committee, members are expected to read over 300 books per year.

Certain Selection Committees are very popular and may receive dozens of Volunteer Forms for just two or three spots. If you’ve never served on a YALSA Committee before, it isn’t reasonable to expect to be appointed to committees like Printz or Great Graphic Novels on your first attempt.

Unlike standing committees, task forces are established from time to time to complete a specific assignment. Terms on task forces end when the YALSA Board considers the assignment completed.

Interest & Discussion Groups

Interest & Discussion Groups are a critical part of YALSA. They facilitate discussions among like-minded professionals and help to develop interesting and informative e-resources, programs and/or publications.

Unlike committees/juries/taskforces, members are not appointed to these groups--you simply opt in--and participation can be 100% virtual. If you're interested in participating in one of these groups, just email the Convener and let him/her know. The leadership of each group is selected by the group, so if you're looking for a chance to develop your leadership skills while learning about your topic of interest, a YALSA Interest or Discussion Group is the best opportunity for you to do so.

If you don't see an Interest or Discussion group on a topic that's near and dear to you, then please consider starting a new one. All you need are 14 other supporters to sign on to a petition which you will submit to the YALSA Board of Directors. Information on how to do that is on the YALSA web site.

Represent YALSA in ALA and to Affiliates

YALSA appoints representatives to several ALA committees as well as joint committees with other organizations, such as the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) and the Children's Book Council (CBC). If being a YALSA representative interests you, be sure to indicate that on your Committee Volunteer Form.

YALSA is one of eleven divisions in the American Library Association (ALA). ALA's governing body is the ALA Council. You may want to serve on Council as a way of ensuring that YALSA and teen services is adequately represented within the larger organization. To learn more about ALA Council, what this video. You may also contact YALSA's Division Councilor to learn more about serving on Council.

ALA has many committees that you can be appointed to directly by filling out a volunteer form. Forms are usually due by the first week of December each year, and the appointment begins the following June. In 2009 ALA changed its committee participation policy and there are many more virtual opportunities now.

Represent YALSA in Your State or Region

Host a YALSA event at a graduate school for Library & Information Science by participating in the 2011 LIS Road Trip! Information about the road trip, as well as a complete toolkit, full of information to ensure your event will be a success, is available from YALSA's web site. To find out what graduate schools may be in your area, visit ALA's Education web page.

Give a workshop or present a program. YALSA has four canned presentations for you to download and adapt.

Hand out YALSA brochures and swag to your coworkers or at a workshop. You can request these free materials via an www.ala.org/yalsa/handouts.

Bring a YALSA Licensed Institute to your state or region. These are full or half day workshops that focus on various topics of interest to librarians and library workers who come into contact with teens.

Attend National Library Legislative Day with your state delegation, or brief your state delegation on teen services issues and give them YALSA handouts, including talking points and key legislative issues. In the past teen services issues have not been well represented at Legislative Day simply because not many teen services librarians have taken an active role. Request materials via www.ala.org/yalsa/handouts.

Attend your state library legislative day (check your state library association's web site for dates and details) and distribute YALSA materials and talking points. Request materials via an www.ala.org/yalsa/handouts.